• PODCAST COMING SOON!

    Look for me to post something about my pending podcast. We will be recording the first episode in a few weeks. Its a panel talk show about geeky news! Stay tuned!
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Dos Time Live!

Posted on May 9, 2008 by scottygc

Ok, so that podcast I talked about once or twice is starting to think about taking off. We picked a name, make a twitter account, a gmail and are currently designing a website. We are also in the process of getting a very restricted Alpha recording underway.

So the name we decided on was Dos Time Live. Dos was what a group of us called ourselves when we were younger. So, we were like, let do something with that. So we came up with Dos Cast. But we hated it. So came up with this. And we liked it so we kept it.

The cast will be a round table discussion about everything important to geeks. So we’ll touch on comics, movies, video games, software, news, hardware, and whatever else. However, knowing us is should be fairly entertaining.

The site should be up within the next few weeks, barring any technical problems. However in the mean time, if anyone actually reads this, progress on the Dos Time Live can be followed at http://twitter.com/DosTimeLive

Cheers!

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Podcast Studio 101

Posted on April 10, 2008 by scottygc

So I finally got around to getting all the gear necessary to record my new and upcoming podcast. (Info will be posted on this blog when it starts!) There are so many different ways to run a podcast that it becomes a challenge to choose one. I looked at the pros and cons of many different ways for months and months. It was also difficult to minimize costs, since professional audio equipment can be very pricey. Finally I decided on the best way to do it on a budget.

First things first, I’ll outline how I wanted to do the recordings. I decided that it’d be easiest to do the podcast via Skype. The podcast is going to be a round table discussion. This can easily be done if everyone gets in one room and sits around one table. However, this creates many unnecessary scheduling problems. So I decided instead of trying to get everyone together once a week and get a recording in, we’ll have the luxury of being able to record whenever we feel like it. Also, this allows me to have guest hosts from out of town which is convenient since most of us are university students. Skype allows you to have conference calls with up to 10 people. Using this, I can have my 3 or 4 other hosts sitting at home relaxing when we record. It also allows everyone to have a computer readily available which is good for re-reading stories of discussion, searches, URLs, etc.

Now some of you may be thinking, that’s easy. There are tonnes of Skype call recording software add-ons and such. The article is done. Not so much. The Skype call recorders will record everyone in the call and save it as an MP3. It can even save your voice and your callers on different tracks. However, even the dual track recording, which is actually a butchered stereo recording at best, leave little to no room for any kind of post production. Also, the recordings are done saved as MP3s. So even if I wanted to, editing an already compressed file is just not ideal. Plus, I can use this as an excuse to get a full blown recording setup! So I decided to go the hardware route. That way I can get studio quality recording, good 2 track recording and easy post production.

The computer interface I decided to go with is the TASCAM US-122L. This is a USB 2-track audio interface. Allows recording of two tracks simultaneously at 24-bit 96 kHz. Which is a lot better than your standard sound card which averages 48 kHz. It also has zero-latency monitoring. So I’m recording the Skype callers on one channel and my voice on the other channel. I can then output only my voice back to the Skype computer and monitor my voice and the Skype callers on headphones. All with no latency. This interface also comes with Cubase LE 4. This was the major deciding factor for me. Cubase (http://www.steinberg.net) is a well known professional recording suite. It is also very expensive. Tascam, and many other vendors, throw in a limited but still very capable version of the Cubase recording suite. Cubase LE is more than enough for good multi-track recording and some simple post production.

The interface has Phantom power so it enables the easy use of condenser mics. Which leads me to my microphone: the Samson C-01. This is a great mic for the price. It cost me about $90 CDN. It has a good warm sound and it gives you all the ability of a good studio mic. As a bonus, it comes in a nice case! The reason I’m recording my own voice on a separate track and with this studio quality microphone is because I’m the host and moderator. Although, after mixing and compression, there shouldn’t be too much difference for our listeners between my voice and the voice of everyone else. Skype has quite remarkable sound quality.

The great thing about this setup is its versatility. I’ve already recorded a few tracks with my guitar and laid out a bunch of crazy vocal sound effects and stuff. Its also a very reasonable price. Total setup is under $300 CDN. Although, you do need two computers. One for recording and one for Skype. Unless you’ve got a quad core system, I’d recommend two separate systems since hosting a Skype conference and multi-track recording are both very CPU intensive operations. All in all I’ve been very pleased with this simple and functional setup.

Stay tuned for the upcoming podcast!

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Gibson suing Guitar Hero?

Posted on March 27, 2008 by scottygc

Gibson, the guitar manufacturer, is suing Activision, the creator of the Guitar Hero series, even though Gibson has an advertising deal with the game manufacturer. Gibson recently claimed that it has a patent, which covers some kind of virtual reality headset that simulates play a concert, that the Guitar Hero series and Rock Band are violating. This is not a remarkable statement upon itself. Except for the fact that Gibson has an advertising partnership with Activision for the Guitar Hero games. Anyone who has played that game knows that you buy Gibson guitars in that game. I wonder how Gibson can justify making a partnership with Activision for a game that apparently violates its own patent. This argument doesn’t hold true for EA’s Rock Band. However, why would Gibson have a patent on this “performance emulation” all this time and let these two competing companies develop these games? Let alone the fact that Guitar Hero has 4 different versions with more on the way.

I’ll break it down as I’ve heard it from many different sources. Gibson has a patent that covers someone using a headset virtual reality device and a simulated instrument to emulate playing in a concert. There is also a specification saying that there would be 2 audio tracks. One would contain the user’s instrument and the other would be the rest of the mix for the specific song. This is similar, although not identical, to Guitar Hero’s setup. Guitar Hero simply has a guitar shaped game controller. It would be a stretch to say this is a simulated musical instrument. As a musician, I’d take offense to anyone who said that Guitar Hero or Rock Band actually simulates playing an instrument. Guitar Hero and Rock Band are console video games with inventive controllers. They are by no means music simulations.

Gibson has been very unclear about the time frame of getting this patent. However, this didn’t stop them from taking legal action against EA, Activision and now apparently the retailers. Gibson got this patent in 1999, reports the CBC. The first Guitar Hero game was released in 2005. If the patent was being violated, why not take action when the first instance of this game was being developed?

All in all, this looks like a cash grab by Gibson. This is a disappointment to me because I’m a big fan of Gibson guitars. They have been and probably will continue to be one of the best and most innovative guitar manufacturers in the world. They need not worry about about an arguable patent violation that’s 9 years too late. Its bad PR and its not going to result in anything. Gibson, make a bigger better concert simulator and you will be redeemed.

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Vista SP1

Posted on March 25, 2008 by scottygc

This is my first real and content filled blog post. I’m jumping into the blog-o-sphere. Know that I’m not an IT pro or anything, but that I’m just writing about my experience with various pieces of software and hardware and such. Hope someone actually reads it and finds it helpful. If you have any comments or problems with what I post, by all means comment.

Now, down to the content I promised. Windows Vista Service Pack 1. It shipped last week after being anticipated since Vista’s launch. I don’t think it was what people were looking for in a service pack for Vista, but to be honest, its not much different than SP1 for XP. I’m going to go over it as I’ve seen it since I installed it.

Features

Vista SP1 isn’t much more than a patch roll up. There are some minor changes here and there, but nothing ground breaking. The patch roll up is not a bad thing, however. Since there were many problems with compatibility and the odd security hole here and there at release, its nice to know that if I need to re-install Vista, which is an inevitability with Windows it seems, I won’t have to start with something that doesn’t recognize half my hardware. Although I don’t believe there is a way to streamline the service pack into an installation cd like was so easily done with XP.

The only notable feature I found was the extreme turn around in the file copy protocols. I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but file copying in Vista was terrible. I do a lot of file transfers between hard drives and over the network. Keeping back ups is important. However, when it takes 30 – 60 seconds for the file to start copying, it can get frustrating. The new file copy system is a huge improvement over what was shipped with Vista. For me, this change made the service pack completely worth the lengthy upgrade process.

My Take

Other than the file transfer improvement and the patch roll up, there isn’t much to this service pack. It stays true to the definition of a service pack. I’m sure they streamlined a few things here and there, but I haven’t seen anything that the regular consumer would notice. The install process was rediculous. There was at least one, probably more, restarts in the process. Its a seemingly needless multi-step process that takes maybe 30 minutes or so to complete, including the download. I didn’t think anything could be more painful that XP service pack installs, but then I experienced this. Although, the install did complete perfectly fine the first time. I heard many horror stories from MSDN subscribers that had the install fail. I successfully installed the service pack first try and I’ve heard from many friends that their install was also flawless.

All in all it is not the patch to fix all and make Vista the new OS that everyone wants it to be. SP1 has new conflicts that makes it incompatible with some legacy software. However, that software is mostly used by large companies and much of it has been patched by the software vendors. There is no reason not to get SP1 as far as I can see. However, don’t expect it to magically make Vista much faster and work with all you old hardware.

Filed under: Opinoins, Software | Leave a comment »

First Post

Posted on March 17, 2008 by scottygc

Alright, finally getting a blog. Just jumped on the Twitter train so I figured why not. Also, needed to get familiar with WordPress to that when my podcast’s blog goes up in a few weeks it doesn’t look stupid!

Filed under: Generic Post | 1 Comment »

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